Greetings.

I'm looking for some easy, simple or casual 2D side scrolling platformers, either modern or classic. I'm not very knowledgeable about the genre, nor am I really interested for myself, but my mother really enjoys Spelunky and Jazz Jackrabbit 2 so I would like to buy her some similar games that are simple and easy to learn. She isn't very skilled at games and has very little twitch reflexes, so the recommendations have to accommodate for that. Cheers.

She also quite likes adventure/hidden object games, so if anyone has any recommendations for games of that genre that aren't too cryptic or hardcore, that would be cool too.

Spelunky is among my favorite games, but I would hesitate to call it either "easy" or "casual". If your mother enjoys it -- and especially if she's actually decent at playing it -- you might not have to worry so much about those two criteria as you think. :)

I don't play tons of other platformers myself, but maybe check out Dust: An Elysian Tale and Treasure Adventure Game. (The latter is kind of fiddly to get working on some people's systems, but it's free!)

Gumboy - Crazy Adventures from 2006 should fit within that category and is available on steam for a few bucks.

Dust is a cracking game, bit metroidvania, was a real surprise. I don’t know platformers that well, it’s generally a difficult genre if you don’t have the skills. Ori and the blind forest just destroyed me with the platforming teleporting spike insta death. Very different from hidden object!

What about emulated old console games like super mario all stars, that’s great.

Cheers for the replies. I'll definitely get Dust: An Elysian Tale when it comes on sale, and maybe Gumboy if I'm willing to break my personal anti-Steam mentality (lol). They both look quite good. In the current sale I ended up buying Hocus Pocus, Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack and The Adventures of Shuggy. Hopefully they will be right up her alley.

http://blupi.org/

If you know or are willing to learn to mount ISO files (using Daemon Tools usually), check out Speedy Blupi 1 and then 2, now freeware. They're aimed at children but can be fun for adults even; they have a really charming aesthetic and the games are sort of cult classics. also, they're from the late-90s but I think they'll run on even modern computers with no issues generally (at least in my case)

(Blupi known as Eggbert in the USA)

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=speedy+eggbert

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (haven't played Monster Boy, but I think it's supposed to be a bit harder?)
Rayman series (maybe not the first one, since it was harder than the rest. the modern reboots are pretty popular too)
Shantae series
Steamworld Dig

Here are some that I've played:
* I've played Dust: An Elysian Tale and Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, and they're both good. (Note that Wonder Boy is a bit on the short side.) Both games have difficulty settings, and Dust has a seeting that reduces the difficulty to almost zero while being quite fun (you get unlimited dust storm on Casual).
* Shovel Knight might be worth looking into. It's a bit harder, but not ridiculously so.
* Since she likes Spelunky, maybe she might look into Rogue Legacy, which is arguably in the same sub-genre, but takes a different approach. (Notably, dying after getting a decent sum of money is how you progress in this game.)
* Timespinner is a nice queer metroidvania. It's not that difficult, and it is quite fun. The game plays very much like the Igavanias (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and the GBA/DS Castlevanias). I haven't played Bloodstained, but it is probably similar (minus the queerness), and I hear that it's longer.
* VVVVVV isn't as easy, but it is simple (the only thing you can do other than move is flip). Furthermore, there's options to slow down the game or get invincibility via the menu.
* Celeste (not on GOG, but available DRM-free on itch.io) is somewhat harder (much harder if you include optional content), but it does have an assist mode; furthermore, the game *wants* the player to succeed. (The main thing with this particular game is that you can dash in 8 directions while in mid-air, but can only do so once per jump.)

The ones i played and reccomend:

- Cave Story +
- Rayman Origins / Legends
- Broforce
- Trine / Trine 2
- Guacamelee Super Turbo Championship Edition
- Shovel Knight

The ones were recommended to me, still have to play them

- Hollow Knight
- Dead Cells
- Celeste
- Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
- Spark The Electric Jester
- Katana Zero
- The Messenger
- Ori and the Blind Forest

I see you already found some very fitting games for your mother. Otherwise, Vertical Drop Heroes HD might have been worth a look. It's cheap and shares some similarities with Spelunky.

And another vote for Steamworld Dig. That's an easy, quite enjoyable platformer with a good discount, too.

There's also the original freeware version of Cave Story, which is still worth playing, as it is definitely a complete game; it even has a super hard bonus dungeon for the best ending! (You can still enjoy the game without having to play that dungeon.)

(I should point out that the publisher of Cave Story +, Nicalis, has a negative reputation; they apparently screwed over Pixel (the one person developer of Cave Story) to the point where Pixel isn't willing to make contracts with non-Japanese companies IIRC.)

Thanks for the reply. I got the game on a bundle many years ago and really didn't know all that.

Shameful behaviour by the publisher. Now i kinda understand why it's one of the few games i have on Steam that doesn't even have a new gridview artwork.

I remember Crystal Caves as pretty darn hard after few maps.

I've heard people saying that, but I found it relatively easy to be honest (not as hard as Commander Keen 1-3 for example). And maybe even my most favourite of the lot. Personally I found Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure to be the annoyingly hard one and the only one of the Apogee scrollers I disliked.